Daniel V. Tierney 2011 Trust LLC v. Sun Hung Kai Strategic Capital Limited ( 2024 )

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 SERENITY INVESTMENTS LLC, et al., Case No. 22-cv-01623-YGR (LJC) 8 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS’ 9 v. MOTION FOR ISSUANCE OF LETTERS OF REQUEST UNDER THE 10 SUN HUNG KAI STRATEGIC CAPITAL HAGUE CONVENTION LIMITED, et al., 11 Re: ECF No. 122 Defendants. 12 13 On February 23, 2024, Plaintiffs Emma Cuadrado, as Trustee of the Daniel v. Tierney 14 2011 Trust, and Serenity Investments LLC, filed a “Letter” with the Court in which they brought a 15 Motion for Issuance of Letters of Request Under the Hague Convention (Motion). ECF No. 122. 16 Plaintiffs’ Letter was not a duly noticed motion pursuant to Civ. L.R. 7-2, nor did it comport with 17 any of the other means by which a party may bring any written request for an order as listed in 18 Civ. L.R. 7-1(a). ECF No. 123. Nevertheless, the Court set March 4, 2024, as the date by which 19 any response to Plaintiffs’ Motion could be filed pursuant to Civ. L.R. 7-3. Id. The Court did not 20 set a reply deadline, nor did it set a hearing date for Plaintiffs’ Motion. Id. 21 No response/opposition to the Motion was filed by the deadline, meaning that the Motion 22 is unopposed. Under Rule 28(b)(1)(B) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, parties may take 23 depositions in a foreign country upon the issuance of a letter of request from the federal court. See 24 also Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., 542 U.S. 241, 247, n.1 (2004) (A letter of 25 request or letter rogatory “is the request by a domestic court to a foreign court to take evidence 26 from a certain witness.”) “Judges in this district have held that motions requesting issuance of a 27 letter of request or letter rogatory should generally be granted and that ‘[t]he opposing party must 1 Freshworks, Inc., No. 20-CV-01869-VC (TSH), 2021 WL 2769009, at *2 (N.D. Cal. July 2, 2021) 2 (quoting Successor Agency to Former Emeryville Redevelopment Agency v. Swagelok Co., 2020 3 WL 7042860, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 1, 2020)). Like all discovery, motions for letters of request 4 are subject to the standards of Rule 26(b), which provides that “[p]arties may obtain discovery 5 regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party’s claim or defense.” Fed. R. Civ. 6 P. 26(b)(1). 7 Having considered Plaintiffs’ Motion, and with no objections in the record from any party 8 to this litigation, the Motion is hereby GRANTED. The Court adopts the Letters of Request 9 attached to the Motion as Exhibits A and B. ECF Nos. 122-2, 122-7. The Clerk of Court shall file 10 the executed letters as attachments to this Order. 11 IT IS SO ORDERED. 12 Dated: March 11, 2024 13 14 LISA J. CISNEROS 15 United States Magistrate Judge 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27